Was 2007the year the right-wing lost its grip? Thats what were hearing from ourallies in El Salvador. And thats why at CISPES?were celebrating this holiday season with hope andexcitement... for more victories in 2008 against right-wing attacks and U.S.intervention! Please help support those victories by making a generous year-end-donationto CISPES.

OurSalvadoran partners point to rising public anger at the social devastationbrought on by the ARENA partys economic program. And despite the Rightsdesperate and dangerous schemes to hold on to power in El Salvador, despiteBushs green-lighting their attacks on the popular movement, in 2007 Salvadoransocial organizations won key victories against repression and neoliberaleconomic ploys. Of course, CISPES?solidarity was there at each step of the way.

Youveheard about the anti-terrorism law that the right-wing ARENA recently rammedthrough the National Assembly in order to intimidate social justice activistswith possible 60 year prison terms. CISPES has been fighting this toothand nail, as well as taking on the US-sponsoredInternational LawEnforcement Academy(ILEA) through protests and congressional pressure. Now our campaignto shine the spotlight on repression is paying off! Check out at thisrecent analysis in the Nation Magazine about the U.S.support for repression in El Salvadorthrough the anti-terrorism law and the ILEA: GWOT: El Salvador byWes Enzinna.

This year more than one Salvadoran compañerohas told us that the CISPES anti-repression campaign has played a key role inmeeting ARENAs attack head-on . After 28 street vendors arrested under theanti-terrorism law went free, movement leader Josefina Lazo said, this is yourvictory as well as ours.

Weve saidall along that ARENAs attacks, although dangerous, are a sign of weakness notstrength. Put plainly they know people reject their program and they fearlosing the elections in 2009. In fact, the leftist FMLN recently announced itsPresidential ticket:?widely respected journalist MauricioFunes for President and historic FMLN leader Salvador Sanchez Ceren as hisrunning mate. Social movement organizations and Salvadorans in the U.S.greeted the FMLNsannouncement with acclaim and it threw ARENA into disarray.

In 2007CISPES again led the U.S.movement in standing with the Salvadoran people. Here are somehighlights:

• This spring CISPES ramped upour pressure campaign on the U.S.Congress to close the ILEA, the School of the Americas-style police trainingfacility run by the U.S.in El Salvador. Checkout an article about the ILEA here.

• In May, 20CISPES delegates brought solidarity from the U.S. as they marched in SanSalvadors massive May Day parade.

• In July and again in October weled weeks of action demanding the release of 13 activists facing terrorismcharges fornon-violently defending the Salvadoran peoples right to water. Youcan see various mediareports on the October week of action here, or watch a videofrom the July action here

• Our Fall Organizing isDemocracy tour brought the eye-witness testimony of two Salvadoranmovement activists to students, trade unionists, Latino leaders and congressionaloffices in 11 US cities and to the gates of Fort Benning as part of theNovember mobilization to close the School of the Americas. Readan article about the tour from our most recent El Salvador Watchnewsletter here.

• We were one of the leadorganizers of the 4th Latin America Solidarity Conference Alternatives toEmpire in Chicago last spring and also brought a delegation to thefirst-ever U.S. Social Forum in July.

• CISPES and the Stop CAFTACoalition kept the pressure on against CAFTA on by releasing a monitoringreport and helping to organize a delegation for the controversial CAFTAreferendum in CostaRica last October. Learnmore about our CAFTA work here.

And if thatwerent enough, we still had the energy to hold a successful nationalconvention from July 27-29 in Boston and moveour national office from New York to Washington DC in August!

Nowis not the time to be complacentbut we can be hopeful. More than that wehave to insure that, as the Salvadoran people begin to turn the tide towardssocial justice, we dont let up our accompaniment of their struggle!

At our JulyConvention CISPES renewed our commitment to stand with El Salvador in thenext 2 years, by making U.S. support for repression a major issue and demandingthat Congress cut funds for the ILEA, by bringing together people andorganizations in the U.S. to demand State Department neutrality in theSalvadoran elections, and by supporting a victorious FMLN campaign!

TheSalvadoran people are constructing an alternative to the savage capitalismthat has held Latin America in a strangleholdfor a generation. ARENA and Bush want to turn the clock back to the timewhen the neoliberals could boast that there is no alternative. Can wecount on your continued support? Click here to make a secure onlinedonation today!

Happyholidays and please keep up your own work and solidarity with struggles allover the world!

Burke Stansbury, CISPESdirector

PS: Here are someother ways to get involved:

**Contact your localcommittee to volunteer

**sign up for ouremergency response network by filling out the form on the right sidebar of ourwebsite at www.cispes.org

**to make a stockdonation contact Sha Grogan-Brown at [email protected]

**Go here todonate frequent flyer miles (national and international organizing requiresa lot of travel!)

**email Elizabeth at [email protected] to find out moreabout CISPESs 2008 delegation

** forward this email to all yourfriends!